“Every new begin­ning comes from some other beginning’s end.” ~ Seneca

Today marks the begin­ning of new direc­tions at the Jun­gle of Life. After much reflec­tion, I have come to the deci­sion (a heart-based deci­sion) to make some changes on con­tent and deliv­ery that hap­pens here.

a jour­ney toward your true peak

The mean­ing and pur­pose of this site remains the same — to be a guide for you, as you jour­ney toward your own true life peak. The thing is, I am only one voice, with one set of life expe­ri­ences. Begin­ning today, that changes. The Jun­gle of Life is now a multi-author source of inspi­ra­tion, guid­ance, and life strategies.

The focus will be around eight broad areas that make up this life we are liv­ing (some­times referred to as the “wheel of life”).

Each month at the Jun­gle of Life will be theme-based (note the monthly theme dis­played in the upper right of the side­bar). I’ll start each month off, intro­duc­ing the theme and writ­ing my own thoughts on what that means to me. The remain­der of the month will fea­ture our eight authors, who will share some­thing along their area of exper­tise. A new arti­cle will be avail­able every 3–4 days.

The Thoughts from the Tree­house newslet­ter will also fol­low the same theme each month. Sign up here, and get the twice-monthly newslet­ter in your email inbox!

Jun­gle of Life Writ­ers

Cre­ative Expres­sion ~ Tanya Geisler:Clar­ity. Action. Achieve­ment. Joy.Tanya Geisler is a CTI-certified coach (a.k.a. “cat­a­lyst, not ther­a­pist”) and speaker who believes that life is a grand production…and it’s time for you to step into your star­ring role. And radi­ate. Right now.

Fun/Recreation ~ Jason Kotecki: Jason Kotecki is an artist, author, and pro­fes­sional speaker. Jason and his wife Kim (a for­mer kinder­garten teacher) make it their mis­sion in life to fight Adul­ti­tis and help peo­ple use strate­gies from child­hood to design lives with less stress and more fun. Stop by www.KimandJason.com for more tips for escap­ing adulthood.

Career ~ John Spence:John Spence is the author of “Awe­somely Sim­ple – Essen­tial Busi­ness Strate­gies for Turn­ing Ideas into Action.” He is an award-wining pro­fes­sional speaker and cor­po­rate trainer, and has been rec­og­nized as one of the Top 100 Busi­ness Thought Lead­ers in America.

Health ~ Todd Dosen­berry: Todd Dosen­berry, aka “Pri­mal Toad,” is a pri­mal enthu­si­ast who is on a life­long mis­sion to inspir­ing mil­lions of peo­ple. You can find him on his blog, Pri­mal Toad, var­i­ous social media sites or pos­si­bly in your home­town as he is in the midst of a world travel expe­di­tion through 2020.

Fam­ily and Social Life ~ Jen Slay­den: Jen Slay­den finds her har­mony in West­ern Mon­tana with her hus­band Mark, their three kids, and an out­door lov­ing black lab named Cody. Stop by and check out her life in music, words, and edu­ca­tion at Find Your Har­mony.

Per­sonal Growth/Spirituality ~ Stacey Curnow: Stacey is a nurse-midwife and a men­tor who helps you give birth to your BIG dreams. You can find out more about Stacey here.

Rela­tion­ships ~ Jayson Gad­dis: Jayson Gad­dis, MA, LPC, CGT is a rela­tion­ship psy­chother­a­pist devoted to help­ing peo­ple awaken through rela­tion­ship and inti­macy. He’s call­ing in a new par­a­digm of con­nec­tion, deep rela­tion­ship, and fam­ily. He’s a hus­band and part-time stay-at-home Dad get­ting schooled by his two kids.

Per­sonal Finance ~ Paula Pant: Thanks to wise money man­ag­ing, Paula Pant has trav­eled to 27 coun­tries, pur­chased a 99-year-old Vic­to­rian home near cen­tral Atlanta’s most beau­ti­ful park, and has never — ever — had a penny in debt. Her blog, Afford Any­thing, is based on one rad­i­cal idea: money should never hin­der your dreams.

For a more in-depth descrip­tion of our writ­ers, check out the Jun­gle Writ­ers page.

New begin­nings.

“Life is not a dress rehearsal. Stop prac­tic­ing what you’re going to do and just go do it. In one bold stroke you can trans­form today.” ~ Mar­i­lyn Grey

“Suc­cess means doing the best we can with what we have. Suc­cess is the doing, not the get­ting; in the try­ing, not the tri­umph. Suc­cess is a per­sonal stan­dard, reach­ing for the high­est that is in us, becom­ing all that we can be.” ~ Zig Ziglar

It’s a warm Sun­day after­noon. The breeze by the lake quickly dis­ap­pears as we wan­der into the for­est. Under the canopy of trees, it’s cool though. With a bounce in our step, we begin our ascent toward the most pic­turesque view in the park.

{…the easy moments on our path toward success…}

Some rocks to climb on, a large hawk fly­ing over­head, a few other fel­low journeyer’s on this hike.

The Climb

A turn and we are mov­ing upward. The for­est begins to give way to a steep upward climb — a climb high­lighted by large boul­ders and open skies. A nar­row path leads upward, large stone steps. We curve back and forth, slowly get­ting higher and higher.

{…the suc­cess jour­ney often has moments where it becomes an uphill climb…}

We pause, replen­ish our bod­ies with water. We pause, and reflect back down to where we have come. We pause, and take in that moment — see­ing where we have reached to. A look for­ward, and we see con­tin­ued steps, no end in sight.

{…when we stop on our suc­cess jour­ney, we give our­selves time to reflect and re-focus…}

The climb con­tin­ues. We are hot, our legs not want­ing to take that next step. We con­tinue on. It’s easy to think about what the view will look like once we’ve reached the top. What about each step along the way, though? We notice the trees grow­ing out of the rocks. We notice a chip­munk near another tree. We see that hawk again, this time much closer. We see the rocks — all these rocks.…

{…suc­cess is in the whole jour­ney, not just some per­ceived peak…}

We reach the top. Sur­rounded now by foliage, and no majes­tic view in sight — there is still this sense of joy, of accom­plish­ment, of bliss. Even though we fully expect that our jour­ney (on this path) is not reached, we still savor the accom­plish­ment of the climb we have made. A glance back, at these steps we’ve just climbed…a smile…a know­ing that we have per­se­vered, a know­ing that we did not back down from the chal­lenge of this climb.

{…take time to savor the path you have trav­eled, and the steps you have taken to get where you are…}

The Sum­mit

We con­tinue on, the path now much eas­ier. Soon we reach a gor­geous rocky over­look. For many min­utes, we just explore the area…climbing, sit­ting, walk­ing. Oth­ers are here also — a stop­ping place to take in the amaz­ing views.

{…soak in the suc­cess that you have created…}

The Jour­ney Continues

Our jour­ney doesn’t end, though. We can­not stay here for­ever. We move on, work­ing our way back down a dif­fer­ent path. Many peo­ple are com­ing up, to see that view we saw. We offer encour­ag­ing words here and there.

{…share your knowl­edge with oth­ers, so they may too expe­ri­ence their own success…}

We reach the trail head, our bod­ies sill warmed up from this hike. The nearby lake is call­ing out. It’s time to play, to splash, to have some unstruc­tured fun!

{…take time to reju­ve­nate and have some extra fun…}

Later on that day, we again explore another trail. This time, we take a wrong turn, and soon find our­selves in the mid­dle of the for­est, no trail in sight. We wan­der, look­ing for the trail we had started on. Even­tu­ally we find that trail.

{…some­times you will get off track. That’s okay. Take time to adjust your bear­ings. And remem­ber, also, that these off-track adven­tures often lead to new discoveries…}

We return home, our day filled with mem­o­ries, and with all sorts of moments we’ll treasure.

{…wher­ever your jour­ney takes you, remem­ber that this is YOUR jour­ney. Savor what you are creating…}

Note: This story was devel­oped from actual moments spent together as a fam­ily at one of Wisconsin’s true trea­sures — Devil’s Lake State Park. If your jour­ney ever brings you through cen­tral Wis­con­sin, a day (or longer) at this park is joy and fun all wrapped up together!

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